The 2026 Travel While Nerdy Packing Awards: What Earned Its Place After Three Months on the Road
After airports, ferries, trains, cruises, laundromats and way too many hotel rooms, it seemed only fair to hand out some awards. So, without further ado, welcome to the inaugural 2026 Travel While Nerdy Travel Awards. These are the items that genuinely earned their luggage allowance... along with a few that really should have stayed home.
The Envelope Please…
🏆Most Valuable Player. Keeping us hydrated without weighing us down.
Carrying a one-litre water bottle around a city all day gets surprisingly old. Most places we visited had somewhere to refill a bottle, so instead of carrying a litre everywhere "just in case", I ended up relying on a much smaller, hip-flask-sized water bottle that fit in the back pocket of my everyday bag. I brought this every city day without fail.
🏆Best Supporting Role. Never asked for applause. Quietly saved suitcase space.
Three months' worth of clothes wasn't going to fit in one suitcase, so we committed to doing laundry every week or two. That decision let us pack much lighter, but only because we'd brought washing sheets we already knew worked for us. I cut up ones we use at home into smaller sizes so they would fit in my toiletries bag. The bonus of taking the ones we use at home is we know how they work and neither of our skin has a reaction to them. Plus, they work for any hand washing we needed to do along the way.
🏆Best $5 I Spent. The best value for money that helped save our relationship
Nobody ever puts toilet deodoriser drops on those glamorous "travel essentials" lists, but after three months of travelling as a couple, they might have been the best $5 we spent. You're eating different food, sharing small hotel rooms and cruise cabins, and generally spending far more time together than normal. These little drops just made life... friendlier. I would suggest trying them at home before heading out, just to make sure you like the scent.
🏆Biggest Surprise. The item I packed to humour someone else... and ended up thanking them for.
I almost always have a foldable hand fan with me, but as I was chatting with a colleague about going to Singapore she said that I absolutely must take a rechargeable held portable fan with me. By the second day in Singapore I realised my colleague hadn't been exaggerating. The humidity was relentless. That's when the little battery-powered fan I'd packed almost as an afterthought became one of the most used items of the entire trip. It earned its place not just in Singapore, but later in Spain and even on planes while we sat on the tarmac waiting for the air conditioning to kick in.
🏆Most Overrated. This one should really be the ‘I need to stop listening to the internet’ award
On this trip we went to not only the Blue Lagoon in Iceland but also a Disney cruise in the Mediterranean, so the internet convinced me that I needed a phone protector bag to protect my pricey phone from the lagoon and the waterslide. But .neither of us totally trusted them to not leak, so we didn’t really get much value out of them. In hindsight, I'd have left my phone safely in the locker or cabin and enjoyed the water instead.
🏆The Luxury Upgrade That Earned Its Weight. A legit splurge
In preparing for the trip I had seen these sun wraps online and I had to admit, I wasn’t sure they would be worth the money. I picked up one that was a black spf 50 sun wrap and while I didn’t use it every day, the times I did use it, it was a game changer. When we hiked to the top of Mount Vesuvius it was a 30+ degree day and there was no shade. I ended up putting the wrap over my hat and covering my shoulders, it really kept me cooler and probably saved me from getting a sun burn too.
🏆The 'I Can't Believe I Almost Left This Behind' Award. Go-go gadget with 1,001 uses
This one was a last-minute addition that became indispensable. A packet of mini carabiners. We used them to clip hats to bags, lock zippers in high pick pocket areas, and my partner even clipped his travel wallet to the inside of a bag for security. We found so many uses for these and they were truly a last minute (and probably an anxiety) pre-trip purchase, but now I swear by them.
🏆Most Frequently Shared. Worth all of the weight
Long travel days have an annoying habit of draining every device you own at exactly the wrong moment. Rather than carrying multiple chargers and cables, this absolute brick of a battery,the Anker Power Bank became our shared power station. Don’t get it wrong, this thing is heavy, but when it’s charged, it can get two phones and a laptop going. Plus it has a built-in USB-C cable, so I didn’t need to bring one along.
🏆Best Non-Digital Companion. The old school winner
Even with our phones and whatnot, there are times you either want or need to be disconnected. I feel having a deck of cards stashed in a pocket can scratch that itch.We often play a game called Trash on train tables and in airports (and pubs). It doesn’t require too much space and you can really quit at any stage. "Can we fit a game of Trash on this table?" became our unofficial way of judging European trains.
🏆The Unexpected Villain. Turns out I packed expectations instead of practicality.
I convinced myself I'd need "nice shoes". We had at least two events booked where I wanted to look a little nicer so I brought some lightweight black flats. Turns out Europe didn't care. Between cobblestones, hiking trails and long sightseeing days, those flats spent most of the trip sitting in the suitcase while my Adidas did all the work.
🏆Lifetime Achievement Award. I’ve said it before, this is an unexpected treasure
If you've read this blog for a while, you already know who was winning this award before nominations even opened: washi tape. I threw it into my toiletries kit ages ago because it doesn't need scissors to cut, is relatively compact, and most importantly, is easily removable and doesn’t leave any residue behind. I’ve used it to close chip packs, tape a piece of paper over a really bright light so we could get some sleep, taped up a package to send home, made photo corners, and about a hundred things I’m forgetting.
🏆Most Improved Player. Just a little shift made these a winner
Ok, I’ve taken a camping multi tool before that was meant to be like a spork that we could try to use to eat things as we were travelling. But they were too small, and I only took one last time, so it ended up staying in my bag. This time I bought us two full sets of close to full sized metal cutlery. (fork, knife, spoon and even chopsticks) Each set came in a zipped holder too (which made it easy to transport dirty cutlery back to the room, bonus!) We used them all the time. They were light enough to not add too much weight to our checked luggage and were big enough to feel like real cutlery. It made it much easier to do things like have breakfast in the room, take packed lunches, and take leftovers without resorting to getting plastic takeaway cutlery.
Round up
These items survived 90 days of trains, airports, cruises and cobblestones and most will make it back into my kit ( definitely not those shoes).
The funny thing is that the biggest winners weren't necessarily the largest or most expensive items. A tiny roll of washi tape, a handful of mini carabiners and a little water bottle earned their place over and over again. Meanwhile, an extra pair of shoes took up far more room and contributed almost nothing.
Packing is always a trade-off, and after three months on the road I've become convinced that every item has to earn its place. These winners have already secured their tickets for the next trip.
The shoes, however, have been quietly escorted off the stage.
NOTE: This is not a paid or sponsored post. All opinions and reviews are mine and I have paid for all of the products mentioned. We encourage you to find travel products that work for you and the way you travel.
